United States President Donald Trump has lashed out at North Korea and China saying that the former is 'behaving very badly' and the latter has not done enough to help.

"North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help!" Trump said in a tweet.

This comes after U.

S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is presently in Seoul, said that Washington would consider military action against North Korea if it was provoked.

Speaking in Seoul at a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Tillerson said Washington's policy of "strategic patience" had ended.

"Certainly, we do not want things to get to a military conflict... but obviously if North Korea takes actions that threatens the South Korean forces or our own forces, then that would be met with an appropriate response," CNN quoted Tillerson as saying.

"If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe that requires action, that option is on the table," he added.

The Secretary of State is on a three-country tour to the region amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula following recent North Korea missile launches, and fears it's preparing for another nuclear test.

Earlier in Tokyo on Thursday, Tillerson said that efforts over the past 20 years to prevent a nuclear North Korea had failed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)